ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 


PUBLISHING 


1785— 1885. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
LEA    BROTHERS    &    CO, 


^^3^ 

^i-4' 


ONE  HUNDKI'l)  Y1L\KS  OF  Pi:i5l,ISIlL\G. 


When  a  business  house,  handecj  cliOwn./rom 
father  to  son,  has  withstood  the  \'4dssitude3-'pf  ii: 
centur)',  it  can  look  back  with  paVdbn'able  pride 
upon  its  past  career,  and  can  anticipate,  with 
reasonable  hope,  a  continuance  of  the  prosperity 
hitherto  secured  by  the  labors  of  its  members.  A 
house  which  dates  back  nearly  to  the  close  of  the 
War  of  Independence,  which  has  since  then  sur- 
vived all  the  alternations  of  peace  and  war,  the 
rise  and  fall  of  successive  financial  systems  and 
the  frequently  recurring  convulsions  of  trade, 
while  invariably  maintaining-  its  commercial  honor 
and  never  failing-  to  meet  its  obligations  to  the 
day,  has  proved  itself  to  possess  the  qualifications 
which  win  and  deserve  success ;  and  its  present 
members  may  be  pardoned  if  they  desire  to  put  on 
record  a  brief  memorial  of  what  their  predeces- 
sors have  accomplished. 

Born  in  Dublin  in  1759,  Mathew  Carey,  the 
founder  of  the  house,  selected  the  occupation  of  a 
printer  and  bookseller.  The  ardor  of  his  youthful 
temperament,  however,  could  not  be  satisfied  with 


the  details  of  trade,  and  he  early  took  an  active 
part  In  the  political  movements  of  the  day.  In 
1779,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  published  a  pam-  / 
phlet,  entitled  "A  Letter  to  the  Catholics  of  Ire- V 
land,!'  iwhidh; trenched  so  nearly  upon  sedition  that 
a  reward  was'  offered  for  his  apprehension,  and 
his  father  caused  him  to  be  conveyed  away  se- 
cretly to  Paris.  There  he  acquired  the  friendship 
of  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  Marquis  de  la  Fay- 
ette, and  remained  for  more  than  a  year,  until 
the  excitement  aroused  by  his  pamphlet  had  sub- 
sided. After  his  return  to  Ireland,  his  Indomitable 
character  manifested  Itself  characteristically  by 
his  commencing,  In  1783,  the  publication  of  a 
daily  paper  called  the  "Volunteer's  Journal," 
which  in  after  times  he  appropriately  described  as 
"enthusiastic  and  violent."  It  speedily  acquired 
so  wide  an  influence  that  in  April,  1784,  the  Irish 
Premier  made  a  motion  in  the  Commons  asking 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  offer  a  reward  for  the 
apprehension  of  Mr.  Carey;  he  was  arrested  and 
was  thrown  Into  Newgate  on  the  sole  authority  of 
Parliament,  but  was  triumphandy  liberated  by  the 
Lord  Mayor  as  soon  as  Parliament  adjourned. 
Still  there  was  a  criminal  prosecution  hanging 
over  him  for  libel  on  the  Premier,  and  the 
Attorney-General  filed  a  bill  to  deprive  him  of  the 


protection  of  the  g-rand  jur)\  Ireland  was  evl- 
dendy  no  longer  safe  for  a  man  of  his  indepen- 
dence and  resolute  spirit,  and  he  turned  his  eyes 
to  the  land  beyond  the  Adantic,  which  had  just 
succeeded  in  throwing  off  its  colonial  bondage. 
He  escaped  in  disguise,  embarked  for  the  United 
States,  and  landed  in  Philadelphia,  November 
15th,  1784,  with  only  a  few  guineas  in  his  pocket. 
La  Fayette  chanced  at  the  time  to  be  visiting 
Washinorton,  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  hearincr  from 
a  fellow-passenger  of  the  arrival  of  young  Carey, 
he  generously  sent  him  a  cheque  for  four  hundred 
dollars — a  benefaction  which  the  recipient  in  after 
years  had  the  sadsfaction  of  returning.  On  this 
slender  capital  Mr.  Carey  at  once  proceeded  to 
establish  a  daily  journal,  and  In  January,  1785,  we 
already  find  him  issuing  "The  Pennsylvania  Even- 
ing Herald."  The  new  enterprise  quickly  won  a 
marked  success,  principally  owing  to  a  novel  fea- 
ture introduced  by  its  editor  and  publisher — the 
reporting  in  extenso  the  debates  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly,  which  Mr.  Carey's  remarkably 
quick  and  retendve  memor}^  enabled  him  to  do  in 
person. 

Before  twelve  months  were  over,  the  )'Outh  who 
thus  vigorously  asserted  himself  in  a  strange  land 
was  involved  in  a  personal  altercation.     Colonel 


Oswald,  editor  and  publisher  of  the  "Independent 
Gazetteer,"  the  organ  of  the  party  then  known  as 
Republicans,  had  vainly  sought  to  prevent  the 
founding  of  a  rival  journal,  and,  failing  in  this, 
resolved  to  crush  it  and  its  owner.  Personalities 
ran  high  in  those  days.  Mr.  Carey,  like  his  oppo- 
nent, was  not  lacking  in  vituperative  power,  and 
the  result  was  a  duel,  fought  in  January,  1786. 
Mr.  Carey  was  no  fire-eater.  Oddly  enough,  his 
first  venture  in  authorship  had  been  an  essay 
against  duelling,  printed  in  1777,  and  he  used  to 
relate  that  prior  to  his  meeting  with  Colonel 
Oswald  he  had  never  fired  a  pistol  but  once,  and 
that  was  when  hiding  in  Dublin  he  had  desired  to 
unload  a  weapon  that  had  been  given  to  him,  and 
had  discharged  it  up  a  chimney.  His  opponent 
had  served  throughout  the  Revolution  and  was  a 
practised  shot,  as  was  shown  by  his  lodging  his 
bullet  in  Mr.  Carey's  thigh-bone,  stretching  him 
on  his  back  for  about  sixteen  months.  Mr.  Carey 
justified  his  conduct  in  this  matter  by  his  settled 
conviction  that  in  no  other  way  could  he  over- 
come an  organized  attempt  to  destroy  his  career; 
and  it  is  pleasant  to  chronicle  that  the  two  antago- 
nists became  good  friends. 

Mr.  Carey  evidently  was  not  a  man  to  be  di- 
verted from  a  settled  purpose,  and  he  possessed 


qualifications  which  insured  success  in  his  calling-, 
A  fine  classical  scholar,  as  well  as  a  man  of  gener- 
al culture,  he  was  gifted  with  indomitable  energy, 
strong  native  sagacity  and  unswerving  integrity, 
which  won  the  confidence  of  all  with  whom  he 
was  thrown.  His  industry  was  such  that  for 
twenty-five  years  he  was  present  every  morning 
when  the  shutters  of  his  store  were  taken  down 
for  the  day.  The  thirteen  States  of  the  period 
offered  no  very  wide  market  for  literary  wares, 
but,  such  as  it  was,  Mr.  Carey  resolved  to  culti- 
vate its  possibilities  to  the  utmost,  and  a  monthly 
magazine,  "The  Columbian,"  was  soon  added  to 
the  daily  "Herald."  This  magazine  had  not  a 
long  existence,  but  it  was  succeeded  by  another 
under  the  name  of  "The  American  Museum," 
which  he  commenced  in  1 787  and  continued  for  thir- 
teen years.  This  periodical  enjoyed  the  approba- 
tion of  General  Washington  and  numbered  amonor 
its  contributors  many  leading  men  of  the  day. 
The  publication  of  books  soon  followed  upon 
journalism,  and  under  his  active  impulsion  speed- 
ily rose  to  proportions  of  no  little  magnitude  for 
the  period.  Perhaps  his  most  important  venture 
was  the  Bible  in  quarto,  both  the  Douay  transla- 
tion and  the  Authorized  Version,  which,  for  a 
considerable  period,  were  the  only  quarto  Bibles 


A 


of  American  manufacture  in  the  market.  Their 
production  required  not  only  enterprise,  but  an 
amount  of  capital  by  no  means  inconsiderable  for 
those  days.  Stereotyping  was  at  that  time  un- 
known. In  one  of  his  letter-books  for  1804  there 
is  a  correspondence  with  a  party  in  London,  who 
offered  to  come  to  this  country  and  introduce 
the  process  invented  not  long  before  by  Didot, 
but  the  terms  named  were  too  extravagant  and 
the  project  was  abandoned.  It  was  no  easy 
problem  to  keep  the  market  supplied  with  a  book 
involving  so  heavy  an  outlay  in  type-setting  as  the 
Bible,  and  Mr.  Carey  solved  it  with  characteristic 
energy  by  keeping  the  whole  volume  standing  in 
type.  Some  of  the  chases  containing  this  type 
remained  until  1844  in  the  office  of  Isaac  Ash- 
mead,  and  were  then  broken  up  in  order  to  use 
the  brevier  letter  of  the  side  notes  on  a  cheap 
edition  of  Lover's  "  Rory  O'More."  Among  the 
most  popular  books  of  Mr.  Carey's  period  were 
Wemyss'  biographies  of  Washington  and  Marion, 
and  Jefferson's  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  while  "Lavoi- 
sine's  Atlas,"  the  "American  Atlas,"  "Bonaparte's 
Ornithology,"  East's  "Reports  "  and  various  other 
works  were  enterprises  of  magnitude  in  a  commu- 
nity so  small  and  containing  so  few  book  buyers  as 
the  United  States  in  the  early  years  of  the  century. 


At  the  present  time,  when  steam  and  electricity 
furnish  such  ample  facilities  for  business,  it  is  not 
easy  to  realize  the  difficulties  which  beset  its 
transaction  two  or  three  generations  ago.  Not 
only  was  the  hand-press  a  ver^^  inadequate  imple- 
ment for  the  manufacture  of  books,  but  their 
distribution  when  manufactured  was  by  no  means 
the  affair  of  organized  system,  such  as  we  are 
accustomed  to.  Mr.  Carey  reprinted  the  Waverly 
Novels,  as  they  appeared,  under  arrangements 
with  Constable  &  Co.  for  "early  sheets."  Though 
two  or  three  copies  would  be  sent  out  by  different 
packets,  the  uncertainty  of  the  voyage  always 
rendered  it  doubtful  whether  some  rival  might  not 
obtain  an  ordinary  copy  almost,  if  not  quite  as 
soon.  When  the  sheets  were  received,  therefore, 
relays  of  compositors  worked  over  them  night 
and  day,  and  as  soon  as  the  binder  finished  his 
work  a  stage-coach  would  be  chartered  to  carry 
to  New  York  the  supplies  required  for  that  city. 
This  w^as  regarded  at  that  time  as  a  wonderful 
exhibition  of  enterprise,  and  Mr.  William  A. 
Blanchard,  who  entered  Mr.  Carey's  service  as  a 
boy,  in  1812,  used  to  relate  how  he  would  be  sent 
off  in  charge  of  such  a  stage-load  of  a  "Waverly," 
and  travel,  perched  upon  the  bundles  of  books, 
night  and  day,  to  be   ferried  across   the    North 


lO 

River  and  deliver  his  packages  to  the  various 
booksellers  of  New  York — a  service  not  without 
hardship,  and  even  risk,  in  inclement  seasons. 

The  ardor  which  thus  overcame  all  business 
obstacles  was  displayed  by  Mr.  Carey  in  every 
relation  of  life.  He  was  emphatically  a  philan- 
thropic and  public-spirited  citizen,  whose  tireless 
energy  was  freely  expended  on  all  worthy  objects 
commanding  his  sympathies.  During  the  fearful 
epidemic  of  yellow  fever  in  1 793,  he  was  one  of 
the  committee  who,  with  Stephen  Girard,  volun- 
tarily remained  in  the  city  and  devoted  themselves 
to  succoring  their  stricken  fellow-citizens;  and  his 
graphic  account  of  the  scourge,  which  went  through 
four  editions,  is  still  considered  indispensable  to 
all  students  of  the  history  of  the  disease. 

In  1 8 10  he  took  a  leading  part  in  the  agitation 
over  the  re-chartering  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States;  and  in  18 14  his  "Olive  Branch;  or,  Faults 
on  Both  Sides,"  written  to  allay  the  savage  discord 
between  political  parties  during  the  war  with  Great 
Britain,  attracted  universal  attention.  No  less 
than  ten  editions  were  called  for  in  rapid  suc- 
cession, and  it  undoubtedly  served  its  purpose. 
Yet  in  issuing  it  Mr.  Carey  was  so  uncertain  as  to 
the  effect  that  it  would  produce,  that  he  was  fully 
prepared  to  find  the  plain-speaking  with  which  he 


1 1 


arraigned  the  violent  partisanship  of  Democrats 
and  Federals,  create  an  antaranism  that  mio-ht 
prove  disastrous  to  him.  Subsequendy  to  this  he 
threw  himself  with  equal  energy  into  the  debate 
upon  the  question  then  emerging  of  protecdon  to 
domestic  industry.  Embracing  the  cause  of  the 
infant  manufactures  of  his  adopted  land,  he  soon 
rendered  himself  so  conspicuous  by  his  writings 
that  in  New  Orleans  some  subscribers  to  his 
quarto  Bible  actually  refused  to  receive  their 
copies  when  they  noticed  his  imprint  on  the  title- 
page.  Perhaps,  however,  the  literary  labor  which 
enlisted  his  warmest  sympathies  was  the  produc- 
tion of  his  "Vindiciae  Hibernicae,"  in  which  he 
sought  to  jusdfy  his  native  land  from  the  partisan 
stories  accepted  in  the  current  English  histories. 

In  1817,  when  Mr.  Carey  associated  with  him 
his  eldest  son,  Henry  C.  Carey,  and  four  years  later 
his  son-in-law,  Isaac  Lea,  the  house  had  already 
attained  the  position  of  the  leading  one  in  the 
publishing  trade  of  the  United  States.  From  this 
time  he  paid  but  little  attention  to  business,  from 
which  he  definitely  retired  in  1824,  devoting  his 
remaining  years  to  public  interests,  to  the  benevo- 
lent enterprises  which  had  always  claimed  his 
earnest  participation,  and  to  an  extended  system 
of  organized  private  charity.     In  these  directions 


his  activity  remained  unabated  until  1839,  when 
his  death,  in  his  eightieth  year,  was  caused  by  the 
overturning  of  his  carriage.  It  is,  perhaps,  per- 
missible here  to  quote  the  remark  of  Dr.  Allibone 
in  his  "Dictionary  of  English  Literature,"  that 
"The  citizens  of  the  United  States  will  ever  owe 
to  Mr.  Carey's  memory  a  debt  of  gratitude  for 
his  invaluable  labors  as  a  citizen,  a  politician  and  a 
philanthropist." 

When,  on  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Carey,  in  1824, 
the  firm  of  Carey  &  Lea  was  established,  provision 
was  made  for  the  admission  of  Edward  L.  Carey, 
a  younger  son,  when  he  should  attain  his  majority. 
When  this  took  place  the  firm  became  Carey,  Lea 
&  Carey,  but  continued  only  a  short  time  under 
this  name.  In  1829  the  business  was  divided. 
The  retail  trade,  which  had  hitherto  been  carried 
on  in  conjunction  with  the  publishing  department, 
was  taken  by  Edward  L.  Carey  as  his  portion, 
and  he  entered  into  partnership  with  Mr.  Abraham 
Hart,  forming  the  well-known  firm  of  Carey  & 
Hart,  still  represented  by  its  successors,  Messrs. 
Henry  Carey  Baird  &  Co.,  Mr.  Baird  being  a 
grandson  of  Mathew  Carey. 

The  publishing  business,  retained  by  Carey  & 
Lea,  continued  to  prosper  and  increase,  as  it  well 
might  do  under  the  management  of  men  of  such 


13 

acknowledged  ability.     Mr.  Henry  C.  Carey  united 
unusual  energy  with  business  capacity.      As   the 
leader — perhaps  one  might  say  the  founder — of  a 
school  of  political  economy,  he  acquired  a  world- 
wide reputation,  and  his  voluminous  works  have 
been  translated  into  almost  all  civilized  tongues. 
He  died  but  a  few  years  since,  after  having  ex- 
ercised  no   little   influence   over   the    economical 
policy  of  the  country.     Among  scientific  circles 
Mr.  Isaac   Lea's   name  has   enjoyed   an   equally 
wide  repute.     An  enthusiastic  student  of  natural 
history,  commencing  at  a  time  when  he  had  but 
few  fellow-workers,  his  contributions  to  the  sci- 
ences   of   conchology,    geology   and    mineralogy 
have  been   exceedingly  numerous  and  valuable, 
acquiring  for  him  the  membership  of  innumerable 
learned   societies  in  both  hemispheres.     A  com- 
plete   bibliography  of   his    scientific    papers    and 
memoirs  is  at  present  in  preparation  by  the  Smith- 
sonian   Institution,  for    early  publication.      From 
1858  to  1863  he  was  president  of  the  Academy 
of  Natural   Sciences,  and   in   i860  he  served  as 
president  of  the    American    Association   of  Sci- 
ence.    As  a  nonagenarian,   in  the  long  evening 
of  a  well-spent  life,  he  still  enjoys  the  respect  and 
affection  of  all  who  have  the  good  fortune  of  his 
acquaintance. 


To  abilities  such  as  these  were  added  in  1833, 
when  the  firm  became  Carey,  Lea  &  Blanchard, 
the  business  shrewdness  and  sagacity  of  Mr. 
WiUiam  A.  Blanchard,  who  for  more  than  twenty 
years  had  been  in  the  employment  of  the  house. 
Mr.  Blanchard's  name  was  not  widely  known 
outside  of  "the  trade,"  but  within  its  ranks  there 
was  no  one  whose  opinion  on  all  questions  of 
trade  interests  and  trade  policy  was  listened  to 
with  more  deference  or  carried  greater  weight. 
In  1836  Mr.  Henry  C.  Carey  retired  from  the 
firm,  which  was  thenceforth  known  as  Lea  & 
Blanchard  until  1851. 

During  the  earlier  portion  of  this  period  the 
house  had  fully  maintained  its  position  as  the  fore- 
most one  engaged  in  the  publication  of  general 
literature.  For  many  years  the  ''American  Quar- 
terly Review,"  which  it  founded  under  the  editor- 
ship of  Robert  Walsh,  w^as  the  successful  rival  of 
the  old  "North  American,"  representing  the 
culture  of  the  Middle  States,  as  the  latter  did 
that  of  New  England.  The  house  had  continued 
the  reprinting  of  the  Waverly  Novels,  of  which 
the  usual  price  for  early  sheets  was  ^75,  and  it 
was  virtually  the  American  publisher  of  Sir  Walter 
for  whose  "Life  of  Bonaparte"  /300  were  given, 
and  a  similar  sum  for  an  early  copy  of  Lockhart's 


15 

"Life  of  Scott."  It  moreover  published  all  the 
novels  of  Fenimore  Cooper  and  the  works  of 
Washington  Irving,  and  it  numbered  among-  its 
list  of  authors  Gilmore  Simms,  Montgomery  Bird, 
Edgar  A.  Poe,  John  P.  Kennedy,  and  many 
other  leading  writers  of  the  period.  At  one  time 
its  regular  allowance  of  publications  was  two 
novels  per  week,  in  addition  to  works  of  more 
solid  character,  such  as  the  "Encyclopaedia  Ameri- 
cana," the  "Encyclopaedia  of  Geography,"  "Wilkes' 
United  States'  Exploring  Expedition,"  "Campbell's 
Lord  Chancellors  and  Chief  Justices  of  England," 
"Strickland's  Queens  of  England,"  and  many 
others  of  magnitude  and  importance.  It  was  the 
earliest  to  recognize  the  o-enius  of  the  writer  of 
the  "Pickwick  Papers,"  of  which  it  promptly  re- 
printed the  parts  as  they  came  out,  making 
arrangements  satisfactory  to  the  still  comparatively 
unknown  author,  and  leading  to  engagements  for 
subsequent  works,  until  Mr.  Dickens's  disappoint- 
ment at  his  failure,  during  his  first  visit  to  America, 
to  effect  the  enactment  of  an  international  copy- 
right, led  him  for  many  years  to  decline  all  nego- 
tiations for  early  sheets.  As  an  illustration  of  the 
obstacles  which  still,  at  so  comparatively  recent  a 
period,  attended  the  transaction  of  business,  it 
may  be  mentioned  that  a  letter  from  Mr.  Dickens, 


i6 

offering  the  early  sheets  of  "Master  Humphrey's 
Clock,"  written  in  the  November  of  1839,  was  for- 
warded by  the  old-fashioned  mail-packets,  running- 
to  Halifax,  where,  in  the  absence  of  direct  commu- 
nication with  the  United  States,  it  lay  till  the 
following  February,  when  it  was  finally  delivered. 

During  the  decade  from  1840  to  1850  the  policy 
of  the  house  was  gradually  changed.  The  system 
of  cheap  publications,  arising  from  the  extreme 
depression  of  business  between  1839  and  1843, 
rendered  general  literature  less  attractive.  It  was 
impossible  to  sell  a  work  of  fiction  except  in 
paper,  and  large  stocks  of  Cooper's  Novels, 
bound  in  cloth  and  utterly  unsalable,  had  to  be 
stripped  of  their  covers  and  be  done  up  in  paper 
to  find  a  market.  The  house  gradually  withdrew 
from  enterprises  like  these;  it  ceased  to  publish 
for  Irving,  it  sold  the  stereotype  plates  of  Cooper's 
Novels  and  Dickens's  Works,  the  Encyclopaedia 
Americana  and  many  others,  and  concentrated  its 
attention  on  a  department  of  the  business,  which 
for  many  years  had  been  steadily  growing  in 
importance. 

From  a  very  early  period  the  house  had  in- 
cluded the  science  of  medicine  within  the  sphere 
of  its  activity,  and  had  issued  a  number  of  promi- 
nent professional  works,  such  as  Bell's  Anatomy, 


17 

Hutin's  Physiology,  and  others.  In  1820  it 
founded  the  "Philadelphia  Journal  of  the  Medical 
and  Physical  Sciences,"  a  quarterly  periodical, 
edited  by  Dr.  Nathaniel  Chapman,  with  whom 
were  subsequently  associated  Drs.  Dewees, 
Godman  and  Isaac  Hays.  In  1827  the  sphere 
of  the  periodical  was  enlarged  from  that  of  a  local 
to  that  of  a  national  organ  of  the  profession,  and 
under  the  name  of  "The  American  Journal  of 
the  Medical  Sciences,"  edited  exclusively  by  Dr. 
Hays,  it  commenced  the  career  which  has,  more 
perhaps  than  any  other  instrumentality,  con- 
tributed to  make  American  medicine  known  and 
respected  throughout  the  world.  For  more  than 
fifty  years  it  continued  under  the  editorial  charge 
of  Dr.  Hays,  until  he  was  removed  by  death,  in 
1879,  ^^^  was  succeeded  by  his  son.  Dr.  I.  Minis 
Hays,  who  had  for  ten  years  been  his  assistant, 
and  who  still  continues  to  superintend  what  is 
now,  with  one  exception,  the  oldest  medical  peri- 
odical in  the  English  language.  The  publication 
of  the  "Journal"  naturally  led  to  more  intimate 
relations  with  the  leading  minds  of  the  profession, 
and  medical  works  consequently  began  to  form 
an  increasing  portion  of  the  issues  of  the  house. 
The  writings  of  Wistar,  Chapman,  Coxe,  Horner, 
Gibson,  Dewees,  Dunorlison,  Meiers,  Hodore,  and. 


in  fact,  of  nearly  all  the  prominent  medical  writers 
of  the  period,  came  to  be  included  in  its  list  of 
publications.  In  1843  a  monthly  periodical,  "The 
Medical  News,"  was  commenced,  which,  altered 
to  a  weekly  in  1882,  is  also  now  one  of  the  most 
prominent  organs  of  the  medical  profession. 
Numerous  republications  of  English  medical 
works  and  translations  of  the  more  conspicuous 
ones  from  the  continental  lancruao-es,  followed 
in  rapid  succession,  and  the  attention  of  the 
house  becoming  concentrated  on  this  depart- 
ment of  its  business,  it  gradually  abandoned  all 
the  others.  In  fact,  as  the  populadon  and  business 
of  the  country  increased,  the  leading  position 
which  the  house  had  so  long  enjoyed  could  most 
readily  be  maintained  by  confining  its  attention  to 
one  branch  of  the  trade,  in  which  it  easily  pre- 
served its  supremacy. 

In  1 85 1  Mr.  Isaac  Lea  redred  in  favor  of  his 
son,  Mr.  Henry  Charles  Lea,  who  had  since  1843 
been  actively  employed  in  the  business,  and  the 
style  of  the  firm  was  changed  to  Blanchard  & 
Lea.  Faithful  to  the  traditions  of  culture  in  his 
family,  the  younger  Mr.  Lea  has  made  himself 
known  abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  by  various 
historical  works  requiring  much  research.  During 
the   war  he  aided  in   all  movements  to  render  it 


effective,  and  since  then  he  has  been  engaged  in 
the  various  efforts  to  elevate  and  purify  the 
poHtical  life  of  the  nation,  without,  however, 
forfeiting  his  character  as  an  assiduous  and  labori- 
ous man  of  business. 

The  partnership  of  Blanchard  &  Lea  continued 
until  1865,  when  Mr.  Blanchard  retired  after  a 
connection  with  the  house  which  had  lasted  for 
more  than  half  a  century.  He  was  succeeded  by 
his  son  Henry,  and  the  firm  again  became  Lea  & 
Blanchard  for  a  few  months,  when  ill  health  com- 
pelled the  younger  Mr.  Blanchard  to  withdraw. 
The  business  was  then  carried  on  by  Mr.  Lea 
alone,  under  his  own  name,  until  1880.  The 
house  had  never  lost  a  partner  by  death,  all  its 
members  having  successively  withdrawn  in  season 
to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  well-directed  industry.  Mr. 
Lea  formed  no  exception  to  this  rule,  and  In  1880 
he  abandoned  active  participation  in  the  cares  of 
business,  remaining  as  a  special  partner  in  the 
firm  then  formed,  of  Henry  C.  Lea's  Son  &  Co., 
consisting  of  Mr.  Charles  M.  Lea,  the  fourth  In 
descent  from  Mathew  Carey,  Mr.  Henry  M. 
Barnes,  who  had  been  connected  with  the  house 
for  more  than  forty  years,  and  Mr.  Christian  C. 
Feblger,  who  had  entered  its  service  In  1865. 
This  partnership  lasted  until  January,  1885,  when, 


20 

on  the  final  retirement  of  Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea, 
and  the  admission  of  a  younger  son,  Mr.  Arthur 
H.  Lea,  the  present  firm  of  Lea  Brothers  &  Co. 
was  established.  For  a  continuation  of  the  pros- 
perity which  has  now,  for  a  century,  never  failed 
to  accompany  the  operations  of  the  house,  the  pre- 
sent firm  relies  upon  a  maintenance  of  its  traditions 
of  honorable  dealing  and  unflagging  industry. 

In  reviewing  this  long  and  active  career,  reach- 
ing to  the  fourth  generation,  the  highest  source 
of  satisfaction  is  found  in  the  reflection  that  the 
house  has  always  recognized  the  moral  responsi- 
bility attaching  to  the  nature  of  its  business.  It 
has  never  sought  gain  in  pandering  to  a  depraved 
public  taste,  but  has  always  endeavored  to  aid  in 
the  diffusion  of  intellicrence,  and  in  furtherinor  the 
higher  education  of  the  community.  It  has  de- 
rived its  chief  gratification  from  the  conviction 
that  the  extension  of  its  business  was  likewise 
the  extension  of  knowledge ;  and,  in  its  issues, 
it  has  steadily  kept  in  view  its  motto — ''Quae pro- 
SMiit  omnibus y  It  has  ever  entertained  a  high 
sense  of  respect  for  its  own  imprint,  and  has  felt 
a  just  pride  in  the  belief  that  its  name  on  a  title- 
page  was  in  some  sort  an  indication  of  the  worthi- 
ness of  the  volume  in  which  it  appeared. 


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